Post-Peak Transfer Woes

My husband works part time pre-load at UPS. I recently got a great job out of our local area (We are currently in CA, and are moving to San Diego), so naturally I'm taking it. The problem is, he was told he is not eligible for a spouse relocation transfer. So, his only option now is to go to school in SD and do an educational transfer. Also, it's just after seasonal, so now is presumably a terrible time to try and transfer. So, we're probably looking at many months of waiting. I want him to be able to keep this job, but the wait we're anticipating may force him to look elsewhere. With the health care situation being how it is now, the thought is pretty nerve-wracking.

Does anybody know if there is anything we can do to help the situation? Does anybody work at the UPS building in San Diego (apparently there is only one besides El Centro) and know what the transfer situation will likely be?

He can try just finding someone to speak too and applying at the local center at where you're moving to before leaving the current position.
It may not be a transfer per se. But, he still might be able to keep his foot in the door. Of course though, thanks to union rules, he would be starting at the bottom all over again.
Why not tell him to put the tuition reimbursement to work and take a class or two near your new residence?

Maybe he'll get lucky, but educational transfers typically are more involved than just signing up for classes. Typically you need to already have been in school or can provide a good reason for enrolling in classes elsewhere. Once an educational transfer has been approved there's a one year fence or so in which if you don't follow through with plans submitted to get the transfer, it's considered a voluntary quit. Details are avail on UPSers.

Maybe he'll get lucky, but educational transfers typically are more involved than just signing up for classes. Typically you need to already have been in school or can provide a good reason for enrolling in classes elsewhere. Once an educational transfer has been approved there's a one year fence or so in which if you don't follow through with plans submitted to get the transfer, it's considered a voluntary quit. Details are avail on UPSers.

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So you're saying that after numerous people tried to defraud the company by signing up for classes only to drop them that the company got smart and placed reasonable restrictions on educational transfers?

My husband has been there for over 2 years now. I know that he will lose all of his seniority, which is definitely a bummer. We're going to try for the educational transfer, but he won't just be dropping the classes. He needs to take them anyways, so it would be a good opportunity for him.

The only issue is, his classes might start well before he can transfer, which is an ordeal in itself because you can't transfer by taking online classes. They want you to show a paid class schedule, and because you can only register for classes a couple of months in advance at the most, it complicates things.

With only two years invested it may be best for him to quit and get rehired at your new location. This would involve a lot of legwork on your part as you would want to have the new job set up before quitting the current one. Yes, he would lose all company time, but should retain the time toward his pension.

If this is not an option there are other places for him to work. UPS is not the end all/be all.

It's incredibly YMMV, but unless your husband has been accepted to Harvard, UCLA, etc. just registering for classes is typically not enough. Usually UPS wants to see you actively in school then will approve the transfer to continue your education elsewhere. Again, simply registering and paying for classes is typically insufficient - You need to be active. The sort manager, hub manager, division manager, HR
manager and labor manager in both your district as well as the one you're transferring to sign off on it. I only write this because people come on here believing its easy to defraud a transfer when it's not the case. Unless your husband is prepared to go to school now and stick with it for 18mo or so, which may conflict with your own timeline, it'll be easier to arrange a setup where he quits and gets rehired.

There's always a chance somebody's in his corner pulling strings for him but he'd know that by now,

So you're saying that after numerous people tried to defraud the company by signing up for classes only to drop them that the company got smart and placed reasonable restrictions on educational transfers?

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If the company was more flexible in regards to permitting non-educational transfer (such as legitimate hardship cases, which I've never heard of being approved in my area without a high-level phone call being made on someone's behalf), then people might not need to feel the need to defraud the company with a bogus educational transfer. UPS already s on part-timers by making them wait more than a decade for a FT job, the least they could do is let the "flexibility" of a PT job go both ways.

That being said, in my experience, all educational transfers are reviewed by the local labor manager and must show proof of active enrollment and some sort of "degree" plan. They're reviewed on a case-by-case basis and there are procedures in place for appealing a decision (which will then be "reviewed" again by the same labor manager), but there's very little the local union can do procedurally to assist as educational transfers aren't covered by the contract.

Dove-tailing seniority for what is essentially a "voluntary" transfer (not following work in a layoff situation) is fair to the members in the building receiving a transferee, but the company would prefer seniority employees quit and apply for re-hire so they can start them over again as a new hire and save on payroll costs.

We'll probably never see hardship transfer language in any contract because it applies to so few employees and isn't being actively demanded by the rank-and-file.

I don't blame UPS for prohibiting transfers. I'm in the Midwest and several times per year people seek my assistance in attempting to transfer to SoCal, Phoenix, Texas, Las Vegas and Florida. If UPS allowed transfers, these locations would be filled with high wage, high seniority employees. In places like SoCal, driving jobs would be filled by those who began their careers in places with low cost of living then transferred when they got years it. Such system would be unfair to the locals as well as UPS.